First of all, congratulations to the dashing crew of Paul Milo's J/122 Orion, who crossed the finish line just after seven a.m. Wednesday morning with an elapsed time of 113 hours, two minutes and 26 seconds. They are currently in third place in their class, but results are still provisional.
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Photos by Mike Atwell[/caption]
For as long as the race was, all three Bay-based J/120s crossed the finish line within twelve minutes of each other. Ken Comerford's Moneypenny led the charge, rolling in around 9 a.m. Rich Born was five minutes behind him onbaord Windborn, and James Praley's Shinnecock finished at 9:12. They are currently in fifth through seventh place in the St. David's Lighthouse Class 4.
Glenn Doncaster's Nanuq, a Sabre 426 out of Fishing Bay YC, was left out of the June issue of SpinSheet unintentionally. Seriously, our bad. They are currently leading the SDL Class 3 after finishing at 5:35 this morning, after 112 hours and five minutes (uncorrected) of racing. Nice work! In the same class, Stormy Weather, the Swan 44 out of Eastport YC crossed the line at 9:16 this morning after a long trek of 115 hours, 46 minutes, and 35 seconds uncorrected. Both Kalevala and Defiance, the Navy 44, are still sailing and hope to finish out the race today.
The Navy 44 Swift came in just before 7:15 this morning, and currently leads the SDL Class 2, but half the fleet is still racing, including George Bauer's C&C 44 Widow Maker.
In SDL Class 7, Anthony Parker and Peter Driscoll are currently in sixth place after Reindeer finished at 7:52 a.m. All boats in Class 7 have crossed the finish line (or retired, as is the case with Shine).
It seems the race was pretty uneventful, considering how many crews were able to send in race reports from the water. One in particular made us laugh out loud. Joe Harris is onboard Gryphon Solo 2, racing in the double handed division. From Joe:
"Good morning sports fans, GS2 and her fearless crew are actually approaching the finish line of the world’s longest race. OMG. Totally. 18 miles to the finish line and we actually have 7 knots of wind, which at this point feels like a frickin’ gale.
So at this point, with a few spare minutes in darkness before we engage the battle with the 50 other boats converging on the finish line, I thought it would be fun to come up with my Top Ten takeaways from this race:
- Getting to know the force of nature that is my co-skipper Rob Windsor. Let me just tell you, my friends, this man is a piece of work. A true FLID (Frickin Long Island Dooshbag) and all of my lacrosse buddies from Long Island know I say that with full affection. Awesome sailor and great shipmate. Our first voyage together but hopefully not our last.
- Sailing in light wind is just plain stupid. ‘Nuff said
- Sailing with good wind is a ton of fun and everyone should try it.
- Sailing offshore at night renews your sense of wonder in the universe;
- Irish Coffee is God
- After your Irish Coffee, take the opportunity to relieve yourself off the stern of your boat. . . . .
- Watch “Talladega Nights, The Legend of Ricky Bobby” the night before the race for inspiration and then say all the best lines 100 times to your co-skipper.
- Double-handed sailing is where it’s at. We have sailed past these big boats with a dozen people perched on the rail and they probably haven’t left the rail for most of the race. Huh? At least after 50 years on the planet I am self-aware enough to know that an anti-social (character) of my caliber who is known not to play well with others in confined areas for extended periods has no business on a big boat going to Bermuda with 20 of my closest friends.
- Try your best to break your boat, so that you and your co-skipper can fix it. Very bonding. Use as many tools, glue and duct tape as possible and then don’t clean up. It’s a guy thing.
- Have an understanding wife… this probably should have been at the top of the list. As mine waits for me in Bermuda, I thank her for putting up with me.
So, there you have it. I’m sure there are quite a few we missed, but we will have to save those for another day. Back to the business of actually finishing this race after 5 days of trying!"
Good luck to everyone still racing, and we'll have more soon.
